Separator for nested articles

ABSTRACT

Separator for nested articles, such as compartmented cartons including a rectangular open frame forming a hopper for a stack of nested cartons. The bottom carton of the stack of cartons is supported on swingable support members moved into and out of supporting engagement with the bottom carton under the control of individual cams. Separator fingers on the ends of swingarms are positioned at all four sides of the frame and come into the space between the rim of the bottom carton and the next adjacent carton, as the support members move out of engagement with the bottom carton and exert a downward separating force on the bottom carton as the stack of cartons is supported by support fingers engaging under the rim of the next to the bottom carton of the stack. The cam moving the separator fingers into the space between the rims of the two lowermost cartons also moves the support fingers into supporting engagement with the rim of the next adjacent uppermost carton. This cam has means thereon moving the separator fingers downwardly to separate the bottom carton from the stack of cartons, while holding the stack by the support fingers.

United States Patent Feher [54] SEPARATOR FOR NESTED ARTICLES [72] Inventor: Jozsef Feher, Chicago, Ill.

[73] Assignee: Alfred Eisenberg, Chicago, Ill.

[22] Filed: Aug. 13, 1970 21 Appl. No.: 63,437

Primary Examiner-Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examiner-George F. Abraham Altorney-HilL Sherman, Meroni, Gross & Simpson 51 May 23, 1972 ABSTRACT Separator for nested articles, such as compartmented cartons including a rectangular open frame forming a hopper for a stack of nested cartons. The bottom carton of the stack of cartons is supported on swingable support members moved into and out of supporting engagement with the bottom carton under the control of individual cams. Separator fingers on the ends of swingarms are positioned at all four sides of the frame and come into the space between the rim of the bottom carton and the next adjacent carton, as the support members move out of engagement with the bottom carton and exert a downward separating force on the bottom carton as the stack of cartons is supported by support fingers engaging under the rim of the next to the bottom carton of the stack. The cam moving the separator fingers into the space between the rims of the two lowermost cartons also moves the support fingers into supporting engagement with the rim of the next adjacent uppermost carton. This cam has means thereon moving the separator fingers downwardly to separate the bottom carton from the stack of cartons, while holding the stack by the support fingers.

4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEMM 23 I972 sum u 0F 4 a n I U n Z I 2 SEPARATOR FOR NESTED ARTICLES BACKGROUND AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION Cartons of various types and particularly molded compartmented cartons for eggs and the like are usually stored for use in stacks, with the cartons nested one within the other. When it is desired to use the cartons, the bottom carton is commonly separated from the stack of cartons by hand. This is a difficult and time consuming operation, due to the fact that the cartons are relatively close fitting and the compartments of the cartons and particularly molded cartons are many times of a rough texture. While efforts have been made to separate the cartons by machine, up to the present time no machine has been devised and marketed which will satisfactorily separate nested compartmented cartons and particularly molded cartons such as are used for eggs and the like.

A principal object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a separator apparatus for successively separating nested articles from a stack of articles, arranged with a view toward utmost simplicity and efficiency in construction and operation.

Another object of the invention is to provide a separator for compartmented articles in which a relatively high stack of nested articles is supported in a hopper and held in the hopper by releasable support members, and separated by support and separator fingers coming into the spaces between the rims of the articles, and holding the stack of articles while removing the bottom article from the stack.

A further object of the invention is to provide a simplified form of separator for nested articles in which a vertical stack of articles is supported in the separator, on the bottom of the lowermost article, and separator and support fingers are brought into the space between the two lowermost articles, to hold the stack and separate the lowermost article as the support means for the stack of articles is withdrawn.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, although variations and modifications may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation of a separator constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the separator with the base and drive motor removed.

FIG. 3 is a view in side elevation of the separator shown in FIG. 2 with the base therefor broken away.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged partial fragmentary detail view of one side of the separator, illustrating the support member for the articles to be separated and the separating and supporting fingers coming between the articles, to support and separate the stack of articles upon release of the support member, with certain parts shown in section; and

FIG. 5 is a partial fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along lines VV of FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION In the drawings, I have shown a separator for nested articles which may be molded egg cartons which are stored in a nested condition and are separated for use. While I particularly refer to the separating of egg cartons, the separator may be used to separate any number and form of nested articles, and particularly containers, and may successively separate one article from a stack of articles or may be arranged to separate two or three or more articles in groups for packaging or other processing, and when separating groups of articles, may be arranged to serve as a counter to count and assure that a predetermined number of articles are separated in each group.

The separator includes generally a base frame having a series of upright posts 11 extending upwardly therefrom. The

posts 11 are shown in FIG. 2 as being in the form of angles and as facing each other, to form the corners of a rectangular open hopper for a stack of cartons 12, shown in FIG. 4 as being compartmented cartons, such as are used for eggs and the like. The upper end portions of the legs of the angle irons forming the posts 11 are flared outwardly as indicated by reference characters 13 in FIGS. 1 and 4, to facilitate the ready insertion of a stack of cartons from the tops of said posts. The stack of cartons is adapted to be supported by releasable support feet 15, movable into position to extend beneath the lowermost carton of the stack of cartons and support the stack of cartons for a separating operation, and movable outwardly of the cartons to accommodate release of the bottom carton from the stack. The posts 11 are suitably tied together to form a relatively rigid open hopper for the stack of cartons or other articles to be separated. A conveyor 16 is shown in FIG. 1 as extending along the base frame 10 between the posts 11,11, for continuously carrying the separated cartons away from the hopper for filling with eggs or other articles. The posts 11,11 at the delivery end of the conveyor may have their flanges (not shown) cut away to accommodate the cartons to be successively removed from the hopper. The conveyor 16 may be of any well-known form, so need not herein be shown or described further.

The support feet 15 extend inwardly from the lower ends of swing arms 17 having enlarged boss-like upper end portions 19. Each swing arm 17 is freely pivoted on a transverse shaft 21 on the boss-like portion 19 thereof. The shafts 21 are mounted on the outsides of aligned parallel legs of the angles 11 on opposite sides of the hopper on mounting blocks 22. Said mounting blocks are bolted or otherwise secured to said angles and extend outwardly therefrom. A separate torsion spring 23 is provided to bias the individual swing arm 17 outwardly of the hopper, formed by the vertical angles 11, and out of engagement with the bottom carton of the stack of cartons. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the torsion springs are generally U-shaped in form and have coils 24 extending about the shaft 21 on opposite sides of the boss-like portion 19, and having free end portions anchored to collars 25 suitably secured to the shafts 21 on opposite sides of the bosslike portions 19 of the swing arms 17. The torsion springs also include generally U-shaped biasing legs extending downwardly of the coils 24 and formed to extend across the insides of the swing arms 17 and bias the swing arms outwardly of the hopper, formed by the angle irons 11, and into engagement with cams 27 secured to and driven from cam shafts 29, as will hereinafter more clearly appear as this specification proceeds. The cam shafts 29 are mounted on opposite sides of the hopper on bearing supports 30, secured to the outer faces of the angle irons 11. Said cam shafts extend beyond said bearing housings and have mitre gears 32 secured to the ends thereof. The mitre gears 32 mesh with mitre gears 33 on the opposite ends of cam shafts 35 and 36. The cam shaft 35 forms a drive shaft for driving its mitre gear sets 33 and 32 and the cam shafts 29. The bevel pinions 32 and 33 form a drive means for the cam shaft 36 parallel to the cam shaft 35, and on the opposite side of the hopper from the cam shaft 35. It will be noted that all four cam shafts 29,29 and 35 and 36 are tied together to effect rotation of said shafts at the same rates of speed, determined by the speed of rotation of the drive cam shaft 35.

The drive cam shaft 35 is journalled on the insides of the bevel pinions 33 on bearing supports 37,37 secured to the outer faces of the parallel angle irons 11,1 1 and extending outwardly therefrom. The means for driving the cam shafts 35,36 and 29,29 is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 as comprising a spur gear 39 suitably secured to the shaft 35 for rotatably driving said shaft. Said spur gear is meshed with a rack 40 guided for rectilinear movement along a vertical slide 41. The slide 41 is mounted on spaced rods 43 mounted at their ends in vertical bars 44 supported at their upper ends on bars 45, secured to bars 46 extending along the outer sides of the aligned legs of the angle irons 1 1, and suitably secured thereto.

The rack 40 is shown in FIG. 1 as having a universal coupler 47 on its lower end, coupled to a connecting rod 48 depending therefrom and pivoted on the end of a crank 49, on a crank pin 50. The crank 49 is shown as journalled on a transverse shaft 51 driven through a chain and sprocket drive 52, which in turn is driven from a speed reducer motor 53 of a conventional form. A manually operable on-off" switch 55 is provided to control operation of the motor 53.

The rack 40 as reciprocably driven by the crank 49 and motor 53, drives the cam shafts 29,29 to move the support feet 15,15 inwardly toward each other into supporting engagement with the bottom carton of the stack of canons, and outwardly of each other, as side separator fingers 56,56 and end separator fingers 57,57 move into the space between the rims of two lowermost cartons, simultaneously with side support fingers 59 and end support fingers 58, to hold the stack of cartons, as the lowermost carton is separated from the stack of cartons.

Each pair of separator and holding fingers 56 and 59 respectively, is mounted on a swing arm 60 freely pivoted on the shaft 21 and biased outwardly of the spaces between the rims of the cartons by torsion springs 61, like the torsion springs 23. As shown in FIG. 4, the support fingers 59 are secured to the lower end of the swing arms 60 as by machine screws 62, and extend inwardly of said swing arms.

The separator fingers 56 are secured to the lower end of a slide bar 63, slidably guided in the swing arm 60 and are secured to said slide bar as by machine screws 64 extending through vertical legs 66 recessed in said slide bars and forming supports for said fingers on said slide bars. In FIGS. 4 and 5, the holding fingers 59 are shown as extending from vertical legs 65 of said holding fingers, which legs are secured to the swing arm 60 and form integral supports for a series of spaced holding fingers 59 extending inwardly of said vertical legs. One separator finger 56 extending from one end of the vertical legs 66 is shown in FIG. as being disposed between two holding fingers 59, while a second separator finger 56 is shown as extending along an outermost support finger 59. The separator fingers and support fingers 59 extend inwardly the same distances, to both come into the space between the rims of two adjacent cartons at the same time.

The swing arm 60 has a gibbed guide 67 extending therealong and opening to its rear face and forming a guide for the slide 63 (FIG. 5). A tension spring 69 is connected between a pin 70 extending outwardly of the swing arm 60 and a pin 71 extending outwardly of the slide 63, to bias said slide 63 and separator fingers 56 in the retracted position shown in solid lines in FIG. 4. The swing arm 60 is moved inwardly to engage the fingers 56 and 59 to a space between the rims of two adjacent cartons by means ofa cam 73 secured to the cam shaft 29. The cam 73 is shown as being in the form of an eccentrically mounted disk, engaging the outer face of the swing arm 60 and moving said swing arm from the solid line position shown in FIG. 4 to the broken line position shown in this figure during 180 of rotation of said cam. When the fingers 56 and 57 are in the broken line position shown in FIG. 4, they will engage between the rims of two adjacent cartons to hold the uppermost carton from downward movement and position the separator fingers 56 to be moved downwardly to separate the bottom carton from the stack of cartons.

The means for moving the fingers 56, rectilinearly to separate the carton or series of cartons from the stack of cartons, comprises a pin 75 on the cam disk 73 and coming into engagement with the top face of a block 76, secured to the slide 63 and extending outwardly therefrom, and moving said slide 63 and the separator finger 56 downwardly guided by the gibbed guide 67, as the pin 75 rotates from position A shown in FIG. 4 to position B.

The swing arm 60 is shown in FIG. 4 as mounted on the shaft 21 on a block 77 freely mounted on said shaft 21. A recessed portion 78 of the swing arm 60 extends inwardly along the block 77. The swing arm 60 is held to said block by a pair of machine screws 79,79 extending through vertically extending slots 80,80 (FIG. 3) formed in the swing arm 60. The

machine screws 79 are threaded in the block 77 and are locked thereto in a suitable manner, to secure said swing arm to said block. Adjustment screws 81 are threaded in an inwardly extending leg 83, defining the upper limits of the recessed portion 78 and abut the top face of the block 77 and afford a means for accommodating the effective length of the swing arm 60 to be adjusted. The adjustment screws 81 may be adjusted either to engage the block 77 with the bottom of the recessed portion 79 or may be backed away by threading in the leg 83 to enable the holding fingers 59 and separator fingers 56 to be accurately adjusted to come into the space between two cartons to effect holding and separating of the cartons. The adjustment further is sufficient to accommodate the separation of a selected number of cartons at a time. Lock nuts 84 are provided to lock the adjustment screws in position.

The separator fingers 57 and holding fingers 58 at opposite ends of the carton are mounted on the lower ends of swing arms 85 and extend inwardly therefrom, The swing arms 85 are swingably mounted on transverse shafts 86, mounted at opposite ends of the frame in outwardly spaced relation with respect to the angle irons 11,11 forming the corner posts of the hopper frame. Except for the fact that the separator fingers 57 and holding fingers 58 are of different widths than the separator fingers 56 and holding fingers 59, the separator fingers 57 and holding or support fingers 58 are supported and operate in the same manner as the separator fingers 56 and holding or support fingers 59.

Eccentric disks or cams 87 on respective cam shafts 35 and 36 have pins 88 extending therefrom for engagement with blocks 89 extending from slides 90, like the slides 63. Tension springs 91 are provided to retractably move the slides 90. Adjustment screws 93 adjust the positions of the separator fingers and holding or support fingers in accordance with the heights of the cartons being separated. The separator fingers 57 and supports for said fingers operate on principles exactly like the separator fingers 56 and cooperate with the separator fingers 56 to exert a separating force on the ends of the carton as the stack is supported by the holding or support fingers 58, in the same manner as the separator fingers 56, so a detailed descrip' tion of the separator fingers 57, and mounting and operating means therefor need not be repeated herein.

In operation of the separator, a stack of nested cartons or other articles is inserted into the hopper formed by the facing legs of the angle irons 11,11 from the top of the hopper. The support feet 15 being in the inwardly extended positions shown in FIG. 2 will engage the bottom of the bottom carton of the stack and thereby support the stack of cartons.

The motor 53 may then be started by operation of the push button 55. This will rotate the cam shafts 29,35 and 36 and the cams 27,73 and 87 in clockwise directions. As the motor is started the cams 27 are in position C shown in FIG. 4 and rotate from position C shown to position D and initially hold the arms 19 and support legs 18 into their inward support positions, shown by solid lines in FIG. 4, as the swing arms 60 and 85 move inwardly to engage the respective separator and support fingers in the space between the rims of the two lowermost cartons of the stack of cartons. As the swing arms 60 and 85 are moved to their inwardly extended positions to engage the respective separator fingers 56 and 57 and support fingers 59 and 58 into the space between the rims of the two lowermost cartons, the cams 27 gradually release the support arms 15. At this time, the support fingers 58 and 59 will support all of the cartons in the stack, except the bottom carton. The pins 75 and 88 will then move into engagement with the respective blocks 76 and 89 and will move the respective blocks 76 and 89 and the slides 63 and 96 downwardly along the respective swing arms 60 and 85 into their extended positions and move the separator fingers 56 and 57 to separate the bottom carton from the stack of cartons. As the bottom carton is separated, continued rotation of the cam shaft will bring the support legs 15 inwardly into supporting engagement with the stack of cartons and release the support fingers 58 and 59 from the rim of the lowermost carton. The release cycle will be repeated as long as the motor 53 is in operation and there are cartons in the stack of cartons.

It may be seen from the foregoing that the separator fingers 56 and 57 exert downward separating forces on all four sides of the bottom carton while a next adjacent carton is held by the support fingers 58 and 59 engaging under the rim on all four sides of the bottom carton, assuring a clean and uniform release of the bottom carton and enabling the bottom cartons to drop to the conveyor 16 and be carried away one by one, in a substantially continuous operation.

It should further be understood that where it may be desirous to separate a preselected number of cartons, the elevations of the holding fingers 59 and 58 and the respective separator finger 56 and fingers 57 may be varied by adjustably moving said swing arms supporting said fingers, to accommodate one, two, three or more cartons to be separated from the stack at one time, and to then be conveyed by the conveyor 16 for wrapping or other operations.

It may further be seen that while the separator is particularly adapted for separating egg cartons molded from pulp or other materials, it may also efficiently separate various forms of difficult to separate nested articles in sequence.

I claim as my invention:

1. An apparatus for separating nested articles comprising a vertically extending open frame forming a hopper for a stack of nested articles,

first article support members mounted on opposite sides of said open frame and including swing arms pivoted for movement about parallel horizontal axes on opposite sides of said frame and having support feet extending inwardly of the lower ends of said swing arms,

first cam means for moving said swing arms and support feet inwardly to engage beneath the bottom article of the stack of articles,

spring means maintaining said swing arms in operative association with the respective cam means and biasing said arms and support feet out of supporting engagement with the bottom article of the stack of articles, second article support members movable inwardly into the space between two nested articles, for supporting all but the bottom article of the stack of articles, and including swing arms movable about horizontal axes perpendicular to the axes of swinging movement of said first swing arms and having support fingers extending inwardly of the bottoms of said swing arms to come into the space between two nested articles and support the articles above the bottom article of the stack of articles, second cam means for moving said second swing arms into the space between two articles of the stack of articles,

article separating means mounted on opposite sides of said open frame for movement into the space between two nested articles, and including 7 third swing arms pivoted for movement about the axes of pivotal movement of said second swing arms and having individual slides, slidably supported on each second swing arm for movement along the longitudinal axis of the respective swing arm,

separator fingers extending inwardly of said slides,

third cam means coaxial with said second cam means for moving said third swing arms and separator fingers inwardly into the space between two articles of the stack of articles, said slides each having an abutment member thereon, and said third cam means having camming means thereon for engaging the associated abutment member and moving said slides and separator fingers downwardly to separate the bottom article from the stack of articles, and

spring means retractably moving said separator fingers along said slides,

spring means biasing said second and third swing arms outwardly relative to said frame into engagement with respective cam means,

a motor and means driven from said motor for driving all of said cam means at the same rates of s eed, and said first, second and third cam means eing so arranged as to hold the article support feet in engagement with the bottom article of a stack of nested articles until said second article support fingers and said separating fingers come into the space between two articles of the stack of nested articles, and to then bring said article support feet into supporting engagement with the bottom article of the stack of articles prior to movement of said second support and separating fingers outwardly relative to the bottom article of the stack of articles.

2. The article separating apparatus of claim 1, wherein means are provided for adjusting the effective length of said second swing arms and the positions of said support fingers and article separating fingers relative to said support feet, determined by the heights of the nested articles stacked, and the number of articlesto be separated from the stack of articles.

3, The article separator in accordance with claim 1,

wherein the cams are mounted on the horizontal cam shafts extending along the ends and sides of the frame,

wherein mitre gears connect said cam shafts to rotate together at the same rates of speed, and

wherein a reciprocably driven rack is provided to drive said shafts.

4. The article separating apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second swing arms at opposite sides and ends of the frame are vertically adjustable to adjust the separator and support fingers thereon in accordance with the height of the stacked article, or the number of articles to be separated from the stack. 

1. An apparatus for separating nested articles comprising a vertically extending open frame forming a hopper for a stack of nested articles, first article support members mounted on opposite sides of said open frame and including swing arms pivoted for movement about parallel horizontal axes on opposite sides of said frame and having support feet extending inwardly of the lower ends of said swing arms, first cam means for moving said swing arms and support feet inwardly to engage beneath the bottom article of the stack of articles, spring means maintaining said swing arms in operative association with the respective cam means and biasing said arms and support feet out of supporting engagement with the bottom article of the stack of articles, second article support members movable inwardly into the space between two nested articles, for supporting all but the bottom article of the stack of articles, and including swing arms movable about horizontal axes perpendicular to the axes of swinging movement of said first swing arms and having support fingers extending inwardly of the bottoms of said swing arms to come into the space between two nested articles and support the articles above the bottom article of the stack of articles, second cam means for moving said second swing arms into the space between two articles of the stack of articles, article separating means mounted on opposite sides of said open frame for movement into the space between two nested articles, and including third swing arms pivoted for movement about the axes of pivotal movement of said second swing arms and having individual slides, slidably supported on each second swing arm for movement along the longitudinal axis of the respective swing arm, separator fingers extending inwardly of said slides, third cam means coaxial with said second cam means for moving said third swing arms and separator fingers inwardly into the space between two articles of the stack of articles, said slides each having an abutment member thereon, and said third cam means having camming means thereon for engaging the associated abutment member and moving said slides and separator fingers downwardly to separate the bottom article from the stack of articles, and spring means retractably moving said separator fingers along said slides, spring means biasing said second and third swing arms outwardly relative to said frame into engagement with respective cam means, a motor and means driven from said motor for driving all of said cam means at the same rates of speed, and said first, second and third cam means being so arranged as to hold the article support feet in engagement with the bottom article of a stack of nested articles until said second article support fingers and said separating fingers come into the space between two articles of the stack of nested articles, and to then bring said article support feet into supporting engagement with the bottom article of the stack of articles prior to movement of said second support and separating fingers outwardly relative to the bottom article of the stack of articles.
 2. The article separating apparatus of claim 1, wherein means are provided for adjusting the effective length of said second swing arms and the positions of said support fingers and article separating fingers relative to said support feet, determined by the heights of the nested articles stacked, and the number of articles to be separated from the stack of articles.
 3. The article separator in accordance with claim 1, wherein the cams are mounted on the horizontal cam shafts extending along the ends and sides of the frame, wherein mitre gears connect said cam shafts to rotate together at the same rates of speed, and wherein a reciprocably driven rack is provided to drive said shafts.
 4. The article separating apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second swing arms at opposite sides and ends of the frame are vertically adjustable to adjust the separator and support fingers thereon in accordance with the height of the stacked article, or the number of articles to be separated from the stack. 